The Good Life

[Clive]

AKA true self sufficiency - is it actuality posible in the UK today in 2023 ? anyone know of anyone truly living a self sufficient (food and energy) lifestyle ?

I reckon energy / transport is easier than ever with solar, wind , battery tech and ev's but could food be done ......... (without living off turnips ?)

 

[delilah]

John Seymour had it right when he said that the biggest mistake he made was trying to do too much on his own.

Self sufficiency at an individual level is a naive dream. Self sufficiency at a community level will save mankind.

 

[Andrew_Ni]

I’d say it could be done but would have to compromise on variety of foods and go back to eating seasonally. A jersey cow and small scale pasteuriser would be a good start. Rabbits and sheep wouldn’t be too hard to maintain a supply of meat. Spuds are as reliable as anything else so long as blight is kept at bay.

 

[Andrew_Ni]

Full self sufficiency results in you not needing anybody and nobody else needs you.

 

[Still Farming]

John Seymour had it right when he said that the biggest mistake he made was trying to do too much on his own.

Self sufficiency at an individual level is a naive dream. Self sufficiency at a community level will save mankind.

My old "go to book "that was.

 

[Red Fred]

The tea would be our biggest problem.

 

[sjt01]

Full self sufficiency results in you not needing anybody and nobody else needs you.

No phone, no internet, no tractors, bicycles or cars. Hand tools made from wood from the hedge, no iron or steel. Wattle and daub house with home grown thatch. Make your own cooking pots from on site clay. Anyone fancy it?

 

[ajd132]

Doesn’t self sufficiency mean in this respect you spend your whole time essentially doing chores so you don’t die?

 

[ajd132]

No phone, no internet, no tractors, bicycles or cars. Hand tools made from wood from the hedge, no iron or steel. Wattle and daub house with home grown thatch. Make your own cooking pots from on site clay. Anyone fancy it?

No, I am not a caveman.

 

[Clive]

I’d say it could be done but would have to compromise on variety of foods and go back to eating seasonally. A jersey cow and small scale pasteuriser would be a good start. Rabbits and sheep wouldn’t be too hard to maintain a supply of meat. Spuds are as reliable as anything else so long as blight is kept at bay.

with modern greenhouse / heating / UV light tech / aqua culture etc would you really have to eat seasonally ? the Victorians were growing UK pineapples

 

[DrWazzock]

There’s enough game (deer, pheasant, rabbits, pigeons etc) here to provide all the meat we need as an extended family. That’s without starting on the sheep. Grow a few veg, fruit out the orchard. Yes we could live. Oats for porridge. Milk a cow or a sheep. Turnips, wheat etc. More solar power than we’d ever need.
We could live off it even if it was rewilded but what about everybody else? What about out reciprocal obligation to society?

 

[Clive]

No phone, no internet, no tractors, bicycles or cars. Hand tools made from wood from the hedge, no iron or steel. Wattle and daub house with home grown thatch. Make your own cooking pots from on site clay. Anyone fancy it?

why would you have to give up such items ? My post was re food and energy not reverting to living like a caveman

 

[Red Fred]

No phone, no internet, no tractors, bicycles or cars. Hand tools made from wood from the hedge, no iron or steel. Wattle and daub house with home grown thatch. Make your own cooking pots from on site clay. Anyone fancy it?

Someone made a comment on a vegan fb thread the other night along the lines of " I don't eat animals and my lifestyle has no impact on the environment" which quickly elicited the response "Where the he** do you live then, the Amazon rain forest? How many animals were killed to create your house and workplace?"

 

[Still Farming]

with modern greenhouse / heating / UV light tech / aqua culture etc would you really have to eat seasonally ? the Victorians were growing UK pineapples

Walled gardens etc etc not stupid then.

 

[delilah]

No phone, no internet, no tractors, bicycles or cars. Hand tools made from wood from the hedge, no iron or steel. Wattle and daub house with home grown thatch. Make your own cooking pots from on site clay. Anyone fancy it?

Yes, yes, and we all think it's great until we need our appendix out. I don't think that's the point.

The point is, it's about direction of travel. Should we carry on down the globalism route, or should we pause and consider whether we need to turn round on certain aspects. On food, once you internalize the externalities - pollution, congestion, packaging, workers rights, etc - then the answer is yes we should.

 

[sjt01]

why would you have to give up such items ? My post was re food and energy not reverting to living like a caveman

That is not self sufficiency then, just taking business from farmers

 

[Clive]

Doesn’t self sufficiency mean in this respect you spend your whole time essentially doing chores so you don’t die?

juts thinking in terms of food and energy - as we know energy is easy ....... just needs capital

the food bit would involve chores but with tech (auto watering, UV light, temp controls etc) a long way from full time just to feed yourself / family

 

[Lili]

A good read about living off wild food. He admits that most of his time was spent shooting, foraging, preparation, preserving to get enough to eat.

Wild Life by John Lewis-Stempel​

The Wild Life is John Lewis-Stempel's account of twelve months eating only food shot, caught or foraged from the fields, hedges, and brooks of his forty-acre farm. Nothing from a shop and nothing raised from agriculture. Could it even be done? We witness the season-by-season drama as the author survives on Nature's larder, trains Edith, a reluctant gundog, and conjures new recipes

​

 

[DrWazzock]

No phone, no internet, no tractors, bicycles or cars. Hand tools made from wood from the hedge, no iron or steel. Wattle and daub house with home grown thatch. Make your own cooking pots from on site clay. Anyone fancy it?

Nail on head. I’d struggle to hunt down a deer without bullets and a rifle.

 

[Andrew_Ni]

with modern greenhouse / heating / UV light tech / aqua culture etc would you really have to eat seasonally ? the Victorians were growing UK pineapples

I wouldn’t like to be depending heating a glasshouse during the winter from solar panels. If off grid you’d need a diesel generator.